There is sweet justice in Denmark. We received news that the Danish Supreme Court acquitted Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society of Prosecutor charges of ‘racism’ and “hate speech under Article 266b of the penal code that were upheld in a conviction and fine by the Eastern Superior Court in May 2011. The headline of the Supreme Court press release was “Dismiss the case on insulting and degrading statements about Muslims.” This is a major victory for free speech in Denmark and the EU. This legal victory in Denmark should also be welcome news to the Hon. Geert Wilders in The Netherlands and hopefully useful news for Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff in her legal proceedings in Austria. The opinion of the seven justices convened by the Danish Supreme Court was posted on the website of the Danish Supreme Court. Hedegaard indicated that he will have an English translation for us later today along with observations about the decision. As we can appreciate it he has been swamped with congratulatory phone calls and interviews by the Danish press. In our last post on Hedegaard’s Supreme Court case heard last Friday, we noted:

Should a favorable ruling on behalf of Hedegaard be handed down, there is speculation in some quarters that the Parliament might take the matter up and ‘tighten’ the language. This effectively could mean the Supreme Court remanding the matter to the Danish parliament to fix the problematic language in Article 266b.

We hope that the Supreme Court ruling results in a much needed change in the Article 266b for protection of free speech akin to the standards under the U.S. First Amendment.

Here is a link to the Danish Supreme Court ruling in the Hedegaard matter in Danish.